'Funky' North East Furniture Brand to Exceed £1.6m Turnover

Jarrow-based
solid wood furniture manufacturer, Funky Chunky Furniture, has achieved a
record turnover of £1.6m in its sixth year of business.

From a cottage industry start-up, in 2013, the rustic furniture and shelves
business now has its own manufacturing facility and continues to grow
exponentially.

Funky
Chunky Furniture achieved an estimated net profit of £149,000, and gross profit
of £626,958, for the last financial year (July 2018 to July 2019).

Within
the past year alone, turnover has increased by 31%, and the business has
employed five new members of staff, across a range of job roles including skilled
joiners, customer services representatives, and the creation of its own
in-house marketing function with the appointment of a marketing manager. In
addition, the business has launched new furniture collections, created by its
own product designer.

Kevin Johnston, who previously ran Ask The Joiner, a local joinery service,
founded the business to break into the North East furniture manufacturing industry.

Kevin,
managing director of Funky Chunky Furniture,said:
“In our first year turnover was £138,000, this year it will be £1,668,909. The
business has grown rapidly and is continuing to grow. A big area of focus for
us in terms of sustainable growth, is finding new ways to streamline operations
and creating opportunities for space as we expand.

“We’re lucky enough to have a very handy team here which means, more often than
not, we can build our own solutions. Having so many skilled pairs of hands on
site means that vision becomes reality very quickly.”

Funky
Chunky Furniture, once a fledgling business based in Kevin’s garage, is now an
established brand with a third of sales coming through its website. Its distinctive
chunky solid wood furniture is also available on popular websites such as
Amazon, eBay and Etsy.

To
complement its online presence, the firm has created an on-site showroom at its
Jarrow workshop, to allow local customers to view larger items prior to
purchase.

Sophie O’Mahony, marketing manager at Funky Chunky Furniture, said: “All our
pieces are designed and manufactured by our craftsmen at our South Tyneside
workshop. Having the showroom space means that customers can visit us, get a
feel for the quality and range of wax finish options, and even see the team
crafting our furniture.”

Funky
Chunky Furniture has been supported by South Tyneside Council throughout its
development journey – from providing a grant to fund Kevin’s first employee to
providing continued business support to aid the firm’s growth.

Kevin
said: “South Tyneside Council’s Business Investment team was instrumental in identifying
grant opportunities that helped us get up and running.

“As
we have grown, South Tyneside Council has been there alongside us, helping us
secure funding for capital investment on more than one occasion. These
investments have meant we have been able to increase our production capacity to
meet demand.
“We have our eyes on the
space we need to meet our growth requirement in the coming few years. We will
be working with the council team on that. Our priority is to stay here and grow
in South Tyneside.”